For some reason, when speaking of dark energy, dark mass, and gravity, the image of the Higgs field comes to mind. This little excerpt from a knowledgeable scientist just reinforces this intuitive image;
Higgs Boson
You asked: How does the Higgs boson generate the masses for all other particles? Is it the carrier of a force?
Dear Umut,
You need to distinguish between the Higgs boson and the Higgs field. The Higgs field is the stuff that gives all other particles a mass. Every particle in our universe "swims" through this Higgs field. Through this interaction every particle gets its mass. Different particles interact with the Higgs field with different strengths, hence some particles are heavier (have a larger mass) than others. (Some particles have no mass. They don't interact with the Higgs field; they don't feel the field.)
It is the opposite of people swimming in water. As people float in water they "become" lighter. Depending on size, shape, etc, some people float better than others.
http://www.fnal.gov/pub/science/inquiring/questions/higgs_boson.html
This is due to the density of water.
OK, assumption; Dark matter is result of the Higgs field, a sea which gives mass to particles and determines the speed of that particle by it's acquired mass.
"c" (SOL) is caused by the restriction of a photon's acquiring mass which imposes a speed limit as the photon swims through the Higgs field.
As the quote mentions,
there are massless particles so small that they are unaffected by the Higgs field and theoretically will be able to exceed "c", because they do not interact with the field at all, which, if they did would impart mass. Could this account for the "spooky action" at a distance, i.e. "c" is not a factor in restrictng the speed of this subquantum particle?
However, just as a large body of water imposes a speed limit on a boat when it reaches it maximum "hull speed"
Hull speed or
displacement speed is the speed at which the wavelength of the boat's
bow wave (in displacement mode) is equal to the boat length.
As boat speed increases from rest, the wavelength of the bow wave increases, and usually its crest-to-trough dimension (height) increases as well.
When hull speed is reached, a boat in pure displacement mode will appear trapped in a "trough" behind its very large bow wave.
From a technical perspective, at hull speed the bow and stern waves interfere constructively, creating relatively large waves, and thus a relatively large value of wave drag. Though the term "hull speed" seems to suggest that it is some sort of "speed limit" for a boat, in fact
drag for a displacement hull increases smoothly and at an increasing rate with speed as hull speed is approached and exceeded, often with no noticeable inflection at hull speed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_speed
I can see a similar phenomena happening in the "sea" of the Higgs field. The more mass (size) a particle acquires, the slower it must move, due to its becoming trapped by its own displacement mode (hull speed) in the Higgs field. Which, IMO, would nicely explain the restriction of a photon inability to exceed SOL and might confirm the proposition of "gravitational waves" surrounding a massive object, the extend of which is directly proportional to the mass (displacement) within the sea of the Higgs field.
Coming to "gravity"; Is it possible that a very large and massive moving object creates a dense Higgs field
"bow wave", increasing in density the closer we get to the large (relatively slow moving) massive object and gravity is somehow a result of this denser Higgs field surrounding the massive object.
This would cause all smaller massive objects within the bow wave to slow down until stops moving relative to the original massive object ( say, a star), at which point it begins to "fall" towards the star or more simply put "meets" the star and is absorbed.
I always found the rings around Saturn to be indicative of a wave like function around the star, where objects of specific masses and speed are caught and must travel in the
throughs of the surrounding gravitational waves. If they slow down, they fall into a
through closer to the star, if they somehow speed up they escape the
troughs by riding the
crests and eventually escaping the compressed gravitational wave and assume their own naturally allowed speed within the Higgs Field.
This is completely speculative, but does it merit an analysis?